:idunno: Same here. Young 'un, please don't go over to the dark side. From reading your posts I get the impression you are serious about ML's and the sort of hunting they entail. As the young lady who started this thread found, the round ball is a very efficient killer on game. All the maxi ball hype is just that in my opinion, I don't really know why folks get seduced into using them, but aside from the fact that they are not really PC for most milieus, they just aren't necessary.
Years ago I was lucky enough to get to hunt an island off the southern tip of Vancouver Island which had a large herd of fallow deer which had been introduced about a hundred years before. The population of this herd had grown so big that a cull was in order and I was friends with the fellow who got to ramrod the hunt. Over three years I shot a whole whack of deer at ranges from twenty yards to a hundred and fifty. All one shot kills with a .50 rb. In all cases penetration was very impressive. On broadside shots I almost always found the ball up against the skin on the off side with the bullet looking like a pancake. Frontal shots went nearly or all the way to the rear hams.
On lots of other deer as well as bears it has been the same story, and my load was always a modest 70gr of 3f.
I think most shooters who use traditional ML guns do so for similar reasons and they don't have to be recounted here. But we pretty much all understand that the level of satisfaction hunting with them is commensurate with the amount of effort expended, and as well there is a harkening back to a time when people took a little more time with things, were a lot more self sufficient and self reliant, and knew the enjoyment of a more elemental way of life. To me, hunting with a old timey muzzle loading gun loaded with a simple patched round ball sort of embodies a desire for that "back in the old days" way of life.
I look forward to the pictures of your first round ball deer this fall. Have fun, eh! :thumbsup:
